The Middle Girl
by Connie Marie R
Summary: A popular girl, trying to win the heart of the school hottie, learns to make friends with 'The Middle Girl', an outcast, who is competing for his heart as well.
1. Prelude

Prelude  
  
An Introduction to The Middle Girl  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I was horrified. My infant girl was acting just like her. Of course, I hadn't seen her in close to seven years, but the memory of her was clear in my mind. She was an outcast if you ever saw one. You think you or your best friends are weird sometimes? Sane citizens compared to her. It wasn't that she was completely mad. She was actually quite nice once you got to know her. It was her beliefs that separated her from us. The Middle Girl earned her nickname sometime after third grade. We had always noticed how she middled everything. She walked in the middle of the sidewalk (the middle of the street as she got older), she walked in the middle of the hallways, she wouldn't eat her food on her lunch tray unless it was in the middle. When we picked our seats in class, she always sat in the middle. She would not answer any division problems out loud unless it was divided evenly by two. In physical education, our squad lines were groups of five. She cried unless she was picked third. She only used the middle pocket of her backpack. We eventually found out that she wasn't just estimating the middle of things. I actually saw her once measuring the sidewalk. After measuring once, she always knew where the middle was, so that's where she walked. Needless to say, she didn't have very many friends. Delighted as we all were to get into Middle School, she was the happiest of us all. We had only seen the beginning when we got into sixth grade. In our school system, middle school is sixth grade to eighth grade, therefore, the seventh grade is always referred to as the 'middle child'. But we all knew that she was the middle child, no questions asked. We were all too happy about that. Not everyone at middle school was. The older students, well, let's just say they didn't like her very much. When she walked in the middle of the hallway, she took up as much space as she needed. Seventh and eighth grade, later just eighth, pushed her to the sides for jokes both years. Then we moved up to eighth, dragging The Middle Girl with us. Nothing changed when we got into high school, but when she found out that you couldn't have a middle of four, she was upset. That didn't fool us. We saw that junior and sophomore years were the best she had in that school. So now my Amy has caught her disease. She's eating her food, pushing it to the middle of her plate. MGS. Middle Girl Syndrome. Of course, she had a name. A name which most of us forgot. But I never did. I will always remember Mary Matthews. 


	2. The First Day Back

Chapter 1  
  
The First Day Back  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
We were driving down the road that goes through the middle of town. Unfortunately, every other senior at Westbrook High School had the same idea. We were packed, bumper to bumper on Main Street. And for some reason, we were all going very slowly. My two friends and I got closer to the last block when we saw what the holdup was.  
  
"What the hell is her problem?" I muttered to myself. Not low enough that my friends could hear it though.  
  
The Middle Girl was walking along the yellow lines in the middle of Main Street, clutching her beloved Lord of the Rings books. She'd cherished them since she could read.  
  
"Hey! Middle Girl!" my best friend Meg yelled to her. She turned. The Middle Girl loved her nickname. It was sick.  
  
"Yes?" she said brightly. Shudder.  
  
"Why don't you just go live in Middle Earth?"  
  
"There's no such place. Besides." We pulled away and could still hear her talking, rambling on and on and on and on about Middle Earth. Meg, Cat and I sped away, rolling our eyes. I mean, hello? Like we cared.  
  
* * *  
  
"I'm sure that all of you had a refreshing summer." Classic. Meg, Cat, and I (aka Charlie's Angels) were in the bathroom applying lipgloss and we could still hear the boring droning voice of the vice principal. Who cared about first day assembly? Nobody. And besides we wanted to look good for all the hotties that went from geek to loser in three months. We heard a humming noise coming from one of the stalls. Another expectancy. The Middle Girl was totally lost in her own world in, you guessed it, the middle stall. Well, let her have her own geeky world, and we can have ours.  
  
* * *  
  
hey. i'm sittin here in comm. boooring times a million. ur in calculus right? i bet ur just catching some zzzzzzz. i know i would if i ever take it!!!!! so wut u wanna do after s. i know i don't want freaking hw on the first day, but its wut happens, right? teachers are evil + theres nothin we can do about it. ha ha ha. member last year in ss? classic. i have that next period. omg this year is turning out to be oth! did u c sean? Can u say hot a million times????? I mean, hello, u shud REALLY think about going to hc w/ him!!!!! maybe hell ask u :D i still haf to work out lots w/ tom. i cant WAIT until hc! this year u r totally going to be the queen but not w/o a date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
LUL Lion  
  
Ohhhhh.To be going with Sean to homecoming!!!!!! That has been my dream since.FOREVER!!! Of course, I'm not the only girl in school that has that same dream. I hated it because I hardly had any classes with him. But this year, I think we're in the same Communications class!!!! But would really really really really REALLY suck is if we were on opposite sides of the class. I might scream.  
  
What's really sad is that he's never had a girlfriend. I don't think he likes anyone in the school. I wish he liked me! I quick wrote a response back to Meg ("Lion" is our little inside joke. Cat is obviously "Cat" and I'm "Mouse") when Baldy wasn't looking.  
  
I knooooooooow! Meg, I'm so in love it scares me sometimes. Do u think I should ask him? I don't know, Ive never asked anyone b4. U know how I get. All nervous and shaky.I don't want to go through that especially in front off Sean! Maybe u should ask him to ask me. U don't get nervous.  
  
Love ya, Mouse  
  
* * * After finishing the ludicrous homework from four classes, I began pacing. Meg said she would tell Cat about our plan. They would go over Meg's house, call Sean, and take it from there. They were going to come over after they hung up.  
  
Please say yes! Please please please please PLEASE!  
  
On the plus side, I sit RIGHT behind Sean in Communications, so I can daydream about homecoming with him in front of me.  
  
* * *  
  
I had fallen asleep reading Shakespeare's As You Like It. First day of the hellhole and Miss Deeno had already given us homework. But, naturally I woke up when Meg and Cat came barging into my room.  
  
"You will soooooooo not guess what he said Steph!" Cat shrieked.  
  
"He loves me and wants to marry me after graduation?" I asked hopefully.  
  
"Close OHHHHH so close!" Meg said happily as they sat down.  
  
"Ok, so what'd he say?"  
  
"He said he would call here tonight, late like midnight, and tell you the entire thing." 


	3. A Midnight Call

Chapter 2  
  
A Midnight Call  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The phone rang. Late. I squealed when I heard the first ring. It's him! The one I am going to marry!!!!  
  
I answered, and tried to keep my voice steady.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hi, Stephanie?" the voice on the other end said. It didn't sound like him.  
  
"Ummm.yeah?"  
  
"I just wondered if you got the homework from Communications? I missed it."  
  
I groaned. It was the fucking Middle Girl! I couldn't believe it! She had just totally ruined what was going to be the best night of my life.  
  
"Middle Girl, do you have any freakin idea how late it is?" I hissed.  
  
"Sure. It's the middle of the night. It's when I do my homework."  
  
Typical. So typical, I wasn't even surprised.  
  
"Look, it was to read the first scene of As You Like It." I hung up. I only had one phone line in my room, and that was the number that Meg and Cat gave Sean.  
  
I was wide awake until about two in the morning when I cried myself to sleep.  
  
* * *  
  
"Steph? You look like hell," said Cat.  
  
"Thanks I'll take that as a complement since I slept shitty last night."  
  
"He didn't call? That's it, isn't it? He didn't call you did he? Oh my god I am so sorry. That little bastard! He said he was gonna call you no matter what!" Meg seriously needs to calm down.  
  
"Heeeeeeeeeey. No dissin my man. There's gotta be-"  
  
"What?" said Cat.  
  
I remembered the phone call from The Middle Girl. But it had only lasted not even two minutes! That couldn't have been the reason. But it had to be. There was nothing else to it.  
  
"EARTH TO STEPHANIE!!!!!" I snapped back to reality.  
  
"What is it?" said Meg anxiously.  
  
"The Middle Girl called me last night. For the Communications homework."  
  
"Shit. That's probably when he called. I'm so sorry Steph," said Meg.  
  
"Yeah." said Cat.  
  
"Hey, maybe he'll call you tonight, or say something to you today," Meg said hopefully.  
  
"Thanks," I said. "But I doubt it."  
  
* * *  
  
I received another note in calculus. This one was from Cat.  
  
hey. talked to sean and he said he tried ur # but it wuz busy. midnight right? cuz thats when he called. that bitch. y cant she just pay attention in class for once????? o well. said he wuld call u 2nite so u have nother shot. 4 leaf!  
  
Kitty Cat  
  
Another shot.Another shot.Of course. It was perfect! He didn't try to call again because he was nervous! Maybe he really likes me! Ohhhh.my Sean.My lovely LOVELY Sean!  
  
(Oh, and in case you're wondering, '4 leaf' is our way of saying 'good luck!')  
  
* * *  
  
Didn't bother reading the second scene of Shakespeare. Too nervous. My hands were shaking when I ate dinner, and I couldn't concentrate on my dumb ass homework. I had more important things to worry about.  
  
As midnight loomed nearer on my alarm clock, I started flippin out. What if I sound freaky on the phone, and he gets scared and hangs up? What if I can't talk and I just make gurgling sounds? Oh, so many stupid stupid STUPID things to worry about.  
  
I think I'm gonna be sick.  
  
* * *  
  
THE PHONE IS RINGING!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! Ok, breath, breath. I can handle this. Before the phone could wake my parents up, I CALMLY picked it up off the receiver.  
  
Ok, remember not to hurl.  
  
"Hello?" Jesus, I sounded like an insane person.  
  
"Hey Steph." I knew that wasn't Meg or Cat. The deepness and sexiness of his voice is inhuman.  
  
"Hey." CRAP! I forgot his name!!!!!  
  
"Sorry you didn't get my call last night. I didn't want to call again because of your rents." I'm hyperventilating, though I never have before.  
  
"Uh, Steph? What's that noise?" I was breathing like there was no air in my room. I swallowed.  
  
"Umm.nothing."  
  
"Sooooooooo.Has anyone asked you to homecoming yet?" THIS WAS IT!!!!!  
  
"Ummmm.no. No, not yet." My voice went up waaaaaay high at the end. I'm blowing it!  
  
"Oh. I'm surprised. You know, you're usually the first girl asked." Yes, of course I knew that. I had turned down everyone who asked me to ANY dance for the past six years. JUST GET ON WITH IT AND ASK ME!!!!!!!  
  
"Yeah, I know. I've never gone with anyone though." I cleared my throat.  
  
"Why? Are you waiting for someone special?" Duuuuuuuuuuh.  
  
"Umm, actually, yes I am." Couldn't he take a hint?!?!  
  
"Well, I don't know who that is," LOOK IN A FREAKIN MIRROR!!! "But I'd like to take you to homecoming. If that's okay with you."  
  
Ok? OK????? I jumped up in the air and landed hard on the floor.  
  
"Stephanie?!?!" His voice was worried. Swoon.  
  
"Stephanie are you alright?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." I wasn't, but I wasn't about to let him know that.  
  
"Well? I haven't gotten an answer beautiful." Beautiful? Me? Naaaaah.  
  
"Of course I'll go with you Sean." I LOVE YOU!!!! DIDYA THINK I'D SAY ANYTHING ELSE?!?!  
  
"Great. Do you want to work out the finer details over lunch at Domino's on Saturday? We can make it a date."  
  
A date. A date. Sean Gallagher asked me out on a date!!!!! Scream scream scream scream SCREAM.  
  
But I didn't I kept it real cool.  
  
"Sure. Twelve thirty okay?"  
  
"Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Love you. Bye."  
  
He hung up. * * *  
  
An hour later, I still cannot believe what happened. I got asked to homecoming by my crush of twelve years. We're going out to lunch on Saturday. I think I sprained my ankle. And.  
  
HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME!!!!!!!!! 


End file.
